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Licence To Queer covers queer aspects of Bond books, video games and more. Search here for your favourite titles and characters or find content related to particular queer identities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, etc).
Queer re-view: Skyfall
If Dorothy in the The Wizard of Oz is to be believed, there's no place like home. But what if that home is Skyfall? In his 50th anniversary queer odyssey, 00-Dorothy doesn’t just kick back against traditional notions of home and family; along the way he creates a unconventional family to replace the one he lost and blows up his childhood abode with dynamite. Talk about cathartic!
“Sexuality, gender and James Bond are all very complex subjects…” Breaking binaries with Ben Williams
Bisexual Bond expert Ben Williams and I have been speaking for years behind the scenes, emboldening each other to be more openly queer. After they came out as non-binary, we thought it was about time we tackled The Big Stuff more publicly: gender binaries, putting who we’re attracted to into boxes and, perhaps most profoundly of all, what needs to be going down in our personal lives to make sense of Quantum of Solace.
“Licence to Queer is a community…” Interesting 2022 conference, London
I was asked to deliver a talk about Licence To Queer at Conway Hall in Central London. In this 10 minute presentation I speak about why I created an online space for queer Bond fans at the start of the Covid-19 lockdowns and how it has grown into a true community.
He runs while others walk
Running probably saved my life. It’s saved Bond’s more than a few times as well. Here, I look back at his running career - which was not exactly impressive until Daniel Craig brought more metrosexual physicality to the character - and compare it with my own, which started soon after I my first viewing of Casino Royale.
No Crying Shame
No Time To Die has prompted discussion about what is and isn't "Bond", and has provoked emotional responses from fans and sceptics alike. In this unflinchingly honest and beautiful piece, Craig Gent reflects on his childhood relationship to 007 and how Daniel Craig's final bow has given him the Bond he longed for all along.
“Keep the fruit”: mixing up Felix Leiter’s masculinity
The line didn’t exist in the earlier drafts of Casino Royale. Is it just a throwaway quip or something more revealing of Felix’s character?
LGBT: Lesbians and Gays Bond Together
Watching a double bill of Casino Royale and A View To A Kill with married couple Han (who had never seen a Bond film) and Maz (who loved Bond as a child but was bullied into not liking it at school) was like seeing both films for the first time all over again. Listen in as two same sex couples banter about Bond with themed drinks along the way.
4 Bond Blondes
Daniel Craig was vilified before he’d even stepped foot on the set of Casino Royale, with much of the opprobrium targeted at his distinctly un-Bondian, unmasculine blonde hair. Some said they couldn’t see him as the hero, but they would buy him as the villain. Here are four blonde Bond villains who helped to create the cinematic stereotype of blonde men as Other.
The enduring appeal of Arnold's aurally androgynous Bond scores
No one integrates the masculine and feminine qualities of James Bond into the music as well as David Arnold. Is that why we keep wanting him back?
Armour on or off? Why Tom Ford is the perfect fit for James Bond
Versace, Cardin, McQueen, Calvin Klein… the Bond series has been associated with many of the world’s most famous queer fashion designers. But there is no more perfect fit for Daniel Craig’s Bond than Tom Ford.
James Bond: Muscle Mary
The lines between ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ fashion are more blurred than ever, in part thanks to James Bond. Nevertheless, stereotypical assumptions about the clothing we choose to wear still persist. Craig’s Bond carries off a classic ‘gay look’ down to a (very tightly fitted) tee.
David was featured on German’s biggest TV channel, ZDF, talking about how James Bond provided him with an alternative role model when he was growing up, especially compared with the supposedly hypermasculine action heroes of 70s and 80s cinema.